George Bernard Shaw: George was born in Dublin, Ireland on July 26, 1865, and died on November 2, 1950. Shaw was strongly Socialist and also gave criticism to the world's religions in some of his short stories. Some of his plays included Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, and Candida. He used his plays not only as a form of entertainment, but as a way to have the public realize things about their lives, introducing some of his ideas of morality, politics, and economy descretely within the plot of each play. In his massive five-scene play Back to Methuselah, Shaw displayed his belief in a "Life Force" that directs evolution toward perfection through trial and error. Tell me if you need anymore info about this guy!! --Ronnie T. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gbshaw.htm http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html
Connection to BNW:
George Bernard Shaw wrote many plays which were mostly to show people his comedic outlook on life. One play in particular called The Doctor’s Dilemma is a humorous play directed toward the medical profession. The play captures the fact that doctors need to care for their patients, but they also feel the need to practice unnecessary operations to make more money. In Brave New World page 156, Linda is back at the Indian Reservation and is continuously on a soma holiday. At first, Dr. Shaw did not want to give Linda more soma when she demanded it, but then he started telling Bernard how the soma can lengthen your life. “But in another we’re actually lengthening it. Soma may make you lose a few years in time, but think of the enormous, immeasurable durations it can give you out of time. Every soma-holiday is a bit of what our ancestors used to call eternity.” The soma is really unnecessary but since Linda insists she needs it, Dr. Shaw gives it to her. Dr. Shaw is similar to the doctor in The Doctor's Dilemma because they both want to make more and more money so they perform or issue things that aren't 100% necessary.
Shaw was also very socialist, meaning that he believed in a theory of Social organization that preaches ownership and control in the means of production and the community as a whole. In Brave New World, their whole society is based off of production. The people in this world are controlled and they all work together for one purpose (production). This is similar to the socialist belief of George Bernard Shaw.
Herbert George Wells: H.G. was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent, Great Britain, and lived until August 13, 1946. Wells was the author many science fiction novels like The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. From early in his career he persisted in finding a utopian way of life where people would be organized and would peacefully live together. He also contemplated ideas of "nurture vs. nature," in which all humans get there personality traits from outside experiences and not natural instinct, as was shown in his novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. Same goes for this guy! --Ronnie T.
Herbert Wells was thought to be considered an English novelist, who, in books, wrote in a historian type of tone.--Keye F
Connection to BNW: H.G Wells wrote a book called The Island of Doctor Moreau which tells a story of a exiled doctor who studies animals on an island. He does a procedure called vivisection which allows the operator to look at the living organisms nervous system. One day Dr. Moreau finds this English man named Edward Prendick washed ashore after a shipwreck. Edward is lied to about what actually happens on the island, but eventually finds out about the Doctor turning animals into animal-human hybrids! Skipping the details, Edward finally gets home to England but can not stand to live there any more through fear that all the humans are animal-human hybrids in disguise. The connection is that the World State controls its "citizens" as human experiments trying to find the perfect way to make a better society. Same goes for the Doctor as he tries so hard to control this island. When Edward leaves and returns to his normal life he can't cope with what he has witnessed.
Thomas Robert Malthus: Malthus was an expert on population control during the late 1700's and earlier 1800's. With the position of professor at the British East India Trading Company Training College, he was able to put his ideas into a reality with actual human populations. In India there were periodic famines, about every ten to twenty years or so, and, under his influence, these would be treated as a way to kill off the surplus population in the country, not a time to act and put out extra food rations. In his 1798 Essay, Malthus declared his eight rudiments of population control and they are as follows:
Subsistence severely limits population-level.
When the means of subsistence increases, population increases.
Population-pressures stimulate increases in productivity.
Increases in productivity stimulate further population-growth.
Since this productivity can not keep up with the potential of population growth for long, population requires strong checks to keep it in line with carrying-capacity.
Individual cost/benefit decisions regarding sex, work, and children determine the expansion or contraction of population and production.
Checks will come into operation as population exceeds subsistence-level.
The nature of these checks will have significant effect on the rest of the sociocultural system — Malthus points specifically to misery, vice, and poverty.
Conection to BNW: Robert Mathus’s main objective was to control the population of India using famine and war in order to decrease it. He wanted to decrease the population because too many people were living in India, and the food supply could not keep up. In Brave New World, Lenina’s Malthusian belt carries some kind of birth control function in order for her to have sex and not have a baby. This is because they only produce people out of test tubes so they can control each person social class. This is a form of population control for the society’s main objective, have able people perform certain jobs and be happy doing so, just like Robert Malthus used famine and war for population control because the food supply was India’s main objective.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gbshaw.htm
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1925/shaw-bio.html
Connection to BNW:
Herbert George Wells: H.G. was born on September 21, 1866 in Bromley, Kent, Great Britain, and lived until August 13, 1946. Wells was the author many science fiction novels like The War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, and The Island of Doctor Moreau. From early in his career he persisted in finding a utopian way of life where people would be organized and would peacefully live together. He also contemplated ideas of "nurture vs. nature," in which all humans get there personality traits from outside experiences and not natural instinct, as was shown in his novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. Same goes for this guy! --Ronnie T.
Herbert Wells was thought to be considered an English novelist, who, in books, wrote in a historian type of tone.--Keye F
Connection to BNW:
H.G Wells wrote a book called The Island of Doctor Moreau which tells a story of a exiled doctor who studies animals on an island. He does a procedure called vivisection which allows the operator to look at the living organisms nervous system. One day Dr. Moreau finds this English man named Edward Prendick washed ashore after a shipwreck. Edward is lied to about what actually happens on the island, but eventually finds out about the Doctor turning animals into animal-human hybrids! Skipping the details, Edward finally gets home to England but can not stand to live there any more through fear that all the humans are animal-human hybrids in disguise. The connection is that the World State controls its "citizens" as human experiments trying to find the perfect way to make a better society. Same goes for the Doctor as he tries so hard to control this island. When Edward leaves and returns to his normal life he can't cope with what he has witnessed.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/hgwells.htm
http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi325517337/ Cool video for Island of Doctor Moreau
Thomas Robert Malthus: Malthus was an expert on population control during the late 1700's and earlier 1800's. With the position of professor at the British East India Trading Company Training College, he was able to put his ideas into a reality with actual human populations. In India there were periodic famines, about every ten to twenty years or so, and, under his influence, these would be treated as a way to kill off the surplus population in the country, not a time to act and put out extra food rations. In his 1798 Essay, Malthus declared his eight rudiments of population control and they are as follows:
- Subsistence severely limits population-level.
- When the means of subsistence increases, population increases.
- Population-pressures stimulate increases in productivity.
- Increases in productivity stimulate further population-growth.
- Since this productivity can not keep up with the potential of population growth for long, population requires strong checks to keep it in line with carrying-capacity.
- Individual cost/benefit decisions regarding sex, work, and children determine the expansion or contraction of population and production.
- Checks will come into operation as population exceeds subsistence-level.
- The nature of these checks will have significant effect on the rest of the sociocultural system — Malthus points specifically to misery, vice, and poverty.
http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/malthus.htmhttp://www.victorianweb.org/economics/malthus.html
Conection to BNW:
Robert Mathus’s main objective was to control the population of India using famine and war in order to decrease it. He wanted to decrease the population because too many people were living in India, and the food supply could not keep up. In Brave New World, Lenina’s Malthusian belt carries some kind of birth control function in order for her to have sex and not have a baby. This is because they only produce people out of test tubes so they can control each person social class. This is a form of population control for the society’s main objective, have able people perform certain jobs and be happy doing so, just like Robert Malthus used famine and war for population control because the food supply was India’s main objective.